Council reminds river pathway users to share with care

A minority of Waikato River pathway users who fail to consider other people has encouraged council to work on a project reminding everyone to share with care.

Hamilton’s busy river pathway is shared by pedestrians and cyclists, but without road rules, some people forget to be courteous by giving way and slowing down.

Road safety coordinator Linda Hall said, “It is really well used and it is a minor part of the usage that some people speed or do not think of others.”

Hamilton City Council has made six new warning signs, which were recently placed in 22 different locations along the path.

Council communications advisor Jeff Neems said it is essentially a reinforcement of some messages which already existed.

“I think it is fair to say we do not have a lot of information on incidents involving cyclists and pedestrians,” Neems said.

Neems said quite often people do not know who to report incidents to, or they may not know who was in the wrong.

“We knew, anecdotally, that there had been some conflict between cyclists and pedestrians,” Neems said.

The new signs include warnings to slow down when the path narrows or a blind corner is ahead, and for cyclists to ring their bell when they want to overtake pedestrians.

“Without wanting to single out cyclists as one particular user group, they can go pretty fast,” Neems said.

Neems said council will start to push the share with care message from the start of December.

He said if the council get through summer without any complaints about conflict between pedestrians and cyclists, it would be a good result.